Tis the winter citrus season

[cactuswatcher]

It's the season for my favorite fruit, the tangerine. November and December are the prime time for tangerines, which I eat till my tongue stings so much I don't want any more citrus for awhile.

After the New Year I eat quite a few tangelos. Oranges are okay, better than orange juice certainly. I like grapefruit, but it's such a mess to eat. Someone will probably give me a bunch of local grapefruit from their own tree for Christmas. (It's as much self-preservation as a gift. People have to get the fruit out of their yards because black rats have moved into some neighborhoods with lots of citrus trees here.) The local grapefruit have very thick skins and are very sour, not as good as Texas grapefruit. In the summer I prefer freshly made limeade to lemonade, but both are pretty good. Kumquats are mostly interesting. Blood oranges are mostly inferior to regular oranges.

Comments

[auroramama]

You're right, sadly, about blood oranges. But Cara Cara navel oranges are delicious.
I wish I could get kumquat marmalade. I want to love all citrus marmalades, but my tolerance for the exquisite bitterness of citrus peel has deteriorated with lack of use.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

Tangerines! But what of clementines - the citrus of Christmas?!

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Clementines are tangerines in my book. Sweeter than fairchilds, but tangerines.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Cuties!

Once upon a time, my family made a yearly Christmas pilgrimage to a place called Pankey Farms in San Diego to buy up their entire stock of tangerines. Alas, divorce and general disfunctionalness brought an end to that agricultural enterprise, and now we go to the grocery store like everyone else.

OTOH, my brother grows his own English Peas in his garden now, so we have a new snackfood of choice for Christmas.